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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Zelda's blankie is on the far left; she received it as a gift from my friend Valerie, when we were living in Fullerton and Zelda was a brand new baby. We liked that it was crocheted and so had holes in it, so she could grab it easier with her little baby hands. We also liked that if it covered her face she could still breathe easily. For these reasons it became the default blanket we always gave her, and she quickly came to love it. She carries it around all the time, and calls it her "binkie" (her attempt at saying "blankie").

Ellie's blankie is the pink and green polka-dot blanket second from the left. Someone gave it to us for Ellie before she was born, but I can't remember who. (Sorry! If it was you, comment and tell me.) We used this blanket with her the most often out of all the blankets because it was made of fleece and the softest one we had. After a million washes, it's not quite as soft but it's still definitely Ellie's favorite.

The next one is my own; it's a pillow I've had since I was two and I call it Pillowy. My family pokes fun at me for still keeping it around, but that's okay. :)

And the last one is Jason's blanket. Because I'm a blanket hog, we sleep with different blankets at night. We got this one (it's blue and covered in snowmen) from his grandparents for Christmas a couple years ago, and it's the one he uses every night. It's definitely not a "blankie" like the rest of ours are, but I wanted to put it in the picture anyway because it is hisfavorite blanket.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Zelda's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. She's starting to do little three word sentences like, "It's my tun!" (It's my turn), and "Kai - so fast!" (she was telling me and Lacrecia that Kai was running really fast). She repeats and says new words all the time that we didn't realize she knows.

Last night when the girls were getting ready for bed, I was reading a book with Zelda and we were pointing out animals. I asked her, "What does the sheep say?" She said "Baaa!" in this throaty, breathless way that she does every time and that cracks me and Jason up. I then asked her "What does the Zelda say?" She looked at me, and I repeated "What does the Zelda say?" She sat there, thinking for a second, then she pointed at her chest and yelled "Me!"

One of the girls' favorite shows is Daniel Tiger, which has a lot of songs about things that are relevant to toddlers. In one of the episodes they sing "You gotta try new foods 'cause they might taste goo-ood!" to encourage children to eat vegetables. Well, Ellie has taken that song and is now applying it to anything Jason and I are hesitant to do. For example:
Ellie: "Mom, play a game with me. Games aren't scary." (singing in the Daniel Tiger voice) "You gotta try new games 'cause they might be goo-ood!"

Ellie, pointing at the guy sitting at the front of the church, waiting to give a talk: "Is that Jesus's prophet?"

Ellie, piling all of the quiet book dress-up clothes onto the quiet book bear: "I'm winning!"

What we did this week

We have new neighbors that moved in a few weeks ago. We're excited to get to know them more, especially since they have a two-year old little girl.

This week they built a fence in their backyard. We kind of considered doing that when we moved here; our backyard is unfenced. It would be nice to have a fence so that we could just let the girls out and we wouldn't have to watch them 100% of the time to make sure they're staying in the yard. But, it costs a lot of money and our backyard is so big and our street is so private that we do just fine without one.

Anyway, one of the afternoons last week the little neighbor girl was playing in her backyard, and Ellie saw her. Ellie went up to the fence and they talked back and forth for a while, and even after the little girl went back to her house, Ellie stayed and played by the fence.

Zelda played too:

I told Ellie to put her arm around Zelda and to say cheese. She tried, and she was being really sweet and talking softly to Zelda, saying "Come here, Zelda. It's all right. C'mere." But you can see how Zelda felt about the whole thing.

Then last Monday Ellie and Zelda were able to have some playmates over for a while. Elias and Jayne are the children of some of our friends from church, and we were watching them because their family was getting ready to move (which they did this week). :( We are going to miss them and are sad they're gone.

Ellie and Zelda had a lot of fun with them while they were over:

This photo cracks me up:

Snack time:

Playing with bubbles on the deck:

Their family also has a boy named Cooper (who Jason and I taught in Sunday school this year, and love) and a baby named Jocelyn. I think Ellie's a bit confused on the whole Jocelyn thing. She loves pointing out Jocelyn in church, and saying "Look! There's baby Jocelyn!" But last week we watched my family's old home videos before church, in which I was a baby. And we pointed me out and said, "That's baby mommy." Well, when we got to church and saw Jocelyn, Ellie pointed her out to us and said, "Look, it's baby mommy! It's baby mommy!" Um, whoops! I think it'll take a couple years for the whole thing to really make sense for her. :)

One of the days this week I was down the hall and I heard Ellie calling for help. I followed the sound of her yells to the laundry room, where I found her like this:

She was trying to reach the chain lock on the top of the door. *Shakes head*

Another day this week I woke up with my hair like this:

I guess that's what happens when you go to sleep with wet short hair, haha. It was sticking straight out all over; it looked like I'd been electrocuted.

Speaking of, we had a thunderstorm one day this week (the day the picture below was taken). The weather's been really variable this week; some of the days have been really
hot and humid and others have just been perfect. On a few of the cooler
days we played outside on the deck.

I attempted to get a picture of me and Zelda together. This is what I got: :)

Zelda decided she could do better, and tried to take the camera.

It was sprinkling a little bit, so Ellie got her umbrella and tried to make Zelda get under it, too. So Ellie was chasing her around the deck trying to cover her with the umbrella.

Ellie's been really excited about the little tomatoes that are starting to grow on our plants. We've had a few get pulled off (no names will be mentioned, but the perpetrator was one-and-a-half) and Ellie's very protective of the remaining ones.

Also, a new "game" that the girls have discovered this week is throwing all the toys over the edge of the deck. Ellie and Zelda kept running from the toy room to the deck the other day, and when I tried to go out to the deck Ellie told me, "No mom! Go back inside! Don't look over the wall!"

I looked over the wall.

They did the same thing again the next day. A few hours after they'd done it, I was getting ready to go somewhere and was looking for my phone, which I couldn't find. Until I looked over the edge of the deck - and there it was! Twenty feet down on the grass.

On the school front, Jason had three big tests this week, with the last one on Thursday. Then, most of his class took off to go to a PA conference in San Francisco, so he got Friday off! He volunteered at a prospective-student thing on campus on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, and is now on a break! (We went to a prospective-student bbq thing last week thing too, which was fun, and we got to hang out with one of our friends from church.) He gets today, Tuesday, and Wednesday off too.

Yesterday to celebrate his break we went out to lunch. We ate at Red Robin, and each of us got fancy hamburgers. I got the avocado bacon burger with a ciabatta bun. It was delicious. It was sooo good. Jason said his burger was really good day. And they were so filling - we didn't have dinner later because we were still full.

And that was our week! Hopefully this week I'll get back in the habit of posting on Friday, instead of days later. :)

After saying goodbye to my Dad and Debbie last Thursday, we had one day without grandparents, and then my mom came on Friday! She stayed all weekend and Monday and went home on Tuesday. The girls had sooo much fun playing with her, and of course I loved having my mommy here. Especially on Mother's Day!

Just a few of the things the girls did with my mom:

Look at pictures (This is our 2012 photo book; Ellie was telling my mom all about being a baby):

Make cookies:

Play outside:

Um, ever since I got my new haircut, I've been taking more selfies. I...have no defense.

Also, check out this huge bruise I've had all week! I got it when we were at the ice cream place last week with my Dad and Debbie. I fell over this fence thing, and saw the cut immediately, but the bruise developed a couple hours later. Zelda has kept pointing it out this week, saying "Owie," and giving it kisses.

Also, while I'm showing you random pictures of myself, what color do you think my eyes are? As a kid I always said hazel, but now I call them blazel because I think they're kind of bluey-green (with the orange in the middle, of course). I don't know.

Zelda came over and joined me in the hammock a couple times.

Back inside: We babysat a dog for a day while my mom was here. She's a beagle/basset hound, and really cute and good with kids. Ellie and Zelda loooved having a dog here for a day. Jason, not so much. It'll be a while before we get a dog of our own, haha.

Ellie spelled this word on the fridge when she was playing with Grandma. My mom said she carefully sounded it out and chose each letter. Can you guess what it is?

"Buzz Lightyear."

Zelda decorated my face while Ellie was playing with letters:

Ellie's also gotten quite good and getting what she wants out of the fridge:

My mom left on Tuesday and the girls were really sad to see her go, but were reassured by the fact that she's coming back in a couple months. Ellie keeps telling us that "Grandma's coming back in a month," now.

Other things from this week: One morning Zelda wanted me to put this red cape on her, so I did. Like half an hour later, I walked past her in the family room, and she was sitting there eating an apple she had gotten earlier. She looked like a mini Snow White! I did a total double take.

The girls got a hold of my phone this week and took the following pictures (among many others):

We also played outside in the yard one day this week, and both girls wanted to pick flowers. They kept bringing more and more to me, and we made quite a big clover and dandelion bouquet.

Also, Zelda. In this basket. Saying "Fwwying!" ("Flying!") as Jason carried her around.

Welcome to the record of our family's adventures! My name is Jocelyn. My husband Jason and I have been best friends ever since we started high school. We got married on April 23, 2010, in the Newport Beach Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in North Carolina with our beautiful little girls, Ellie, Zelda, and Susanna.